Monday, March 19, 2012

First Solar---tax money

Ohio
Gov. Ted Strickland (L) and Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke (R) listen
to US Vice President Joseph Biden (C) speak to local officials June 23,
2009, at Willard & Kelsey Solar Group in Perrysburg, Ohio. Biden
toured the facility before speaking about the struggles of hard hit auto
communities. (Photo by J.D. Pooley/Getty Images)

A heavily subsidized solar company received a U.S. taxpayer loan guarantee to sell solar panels to itself.

First Solar is the company. The subsidy came from the Export-Import
Bank, which President Obama and Harry Reid are currently fighting to
extend and expand. The underlying issue is how Obama's insistence on
green-energy subsidies and export subsidies manifests itself as rank
corporate welfare.

Here's the road of subsidies these solar panels followed from Perrysburg, Ohio, to St. Clair, Ontario.

First Solar is an Arizona-based manufacturer of solar panels. In
2010, the Obama administration awarded the company $16.3 million to
expand its factory in Ohio -- a subsidy Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland
touted in his failed re-election bid that year.

Five weeks before the 2010 election, Strickland announced more than a
million dollars in job training grants to First Solar. The Ohio
Department of Development also lent First Solar $5 million, and the
state's Air Quality Development Authority gave the company an additional
$10 million loan.

After First Solar pocketed this $17.3 million in government grants and $15 million in government loans, Ex-Im entered the scene.

In September 2011, Ex-Im approved $455.7 million in loan guarantees
to subsidize the sale of solar panels to two wind farms in Canada. That
means if the wind farm ever defaults, the taxpayers pick up the tab,
ensuring First Solar gets paid.